Police, firefighters, utility crews and other personnel in southern Franklin County had their hands full Sunday dealing with the remnants of Tropical Storm Irene, but the area was largely spared from any serious damage.
The storm's high winds toppled trees into roads and power lines and triggered power outages that lasted several hours. The most serious incidents were in Saranac Lake, where a car and a house were hit by falling trees in separate incidents.
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Saranac Lake
The Saranac Lake Volunteer Fire Department responded to 14 fire calls during the storm, most of which were reports of trees on power lines or trees blocking roads.
A tree fell onto a car on Will Rogers Drive around 2 p.m. Richard Brenner, 64, of Saranac Lake, was leaving work at Will Rogers when a large white pine fell across the road in front of his 2011 Honda Accord, just missing it, according to village police Sgt. James Law.
"He turned around, and as he was turning around, a second tree fell on his car, smashing into his hood," Law said.
Brenner wasn't injured and got out of the car and called for help, Law said. Village police and firefighters responded, as did village Department of Public Works employees, who cut the tree that had fallen on Brenner's car, which was towed by Madden's Towing. National Grid workers arrived to repair a power line that was hit when the first tree fell.
Beyond that, Law said the police department had no other major incidents.
"The traffic lights were out, so we had to place cones and signs," he said. "We had a couple of alarms go off. We were wicked busy, but nothing significant."
In addition to responding to the local fire calls, several Saranac Lake Volunteer Fire Department members and a fire department boat traveled to Lake Placid and Keene during the day to help people who were stranded by flooding, according to village fire driver Rick Yorkey.
Yorkey said the Paul Smiths-Gabriels Volunteer Fire Department had one storm-related call while the Bloomingdale Volunteer Fire Department had five or six calls. One of Bloomingdale's calls said a state Department of Environmental Conservation officer and several motorists were stranded on a section of the Plank Road in the town of Franklin after rising flood waters washed away sections of the road. An air boat was brought into rescue them, said Franklin County Emergency Services Director Ricky Provost.
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Tupper Lake
Tupper Lake emergency personnel said it was a relatively calm day, despite high winds. They responded to several trees down, but other than that, they were sending volunteers to Essex County to help there.
"We were lucky," village police Sgt. Sean Stradley said this morning.
The Tupper Lake Volunteer Fire Department responded to a tree that was knocked into the road on state Route 30 about a mile from the Hamilton County line at about 12:36 p.m. Sunday. Firefighters cut the tree up with a chainsaw and removed it from the roadway while other volunteers performed traffic control.
Then at 11:55 p.m., firefighters responded to a tree burning on power lines on state Route 30 near Rock Island Bay. They stood by and monitored the situation while village electric crews came and removed the tree from wires.
Village police Chief Tom Fee said his officers responded to a tree down on Lake Simond Road and one on Read and Strange Road.
The Franklin County 911 dispatchers took over for village police so they could have two patrols out on the road.
"That worked out good," Fee said.
In the spring, the AuSable River flooded early, then the Raquette River flooded later on, with Tupper Lake experiencing some of the worst flooding after the Keene and AuSable areas had dried up. So Fee said Tupper Lake police are monitoring for flooding there, though they haven't seen anything to be nervous about yet.
"There's standing water in the ballfield (at the Municipal Park), but it has nothing to do with the lake," Fee said.
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Countywide
Provost said there were no major incidents in Franklin County due to the remnants of the hurricane.
"Franklin has weathered the storm better than most," he said last night. "We probably had 60 or 80 calls today of power lines down involving trees, but no major concerns. We had the incident on the Plank Road where we had to go in and get some people out. Other than that, it's mainly assisting Clinton and Essex County."
Provost said volunteer firefighters from Franklin County and other parts of the North Country were being brought into Clinton and Essex counties last night to assist with the response and recovery effort.
Power outages were widespread Sunday, with numerous people and businesses in the village of Saranac Lake losing power. As of this morning, the most widespread power outages were in the towns of Franklin and Brighton, according to National Grid's website. There were 122 people without power in Franklin, mainly in Onchiota and Loon Lake, and 40 in Brighton, mainly around Upper St. Regis Lake. There were also handful of customers still without power in the town of Harrietstown.
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Staff Writer Nathan Brown contributed to this report from Saranac Lake.
